Stoke schools facing added pressure due to new budgets

Schools, colleges and academies in Stoke-on-Trent face changes to their budgets, as government funding will affect them in the forthcoming year.

Additional money has been added, or taken away from schools as a new national funding formula has been introduced by the government.

However, teaching unions have released figures showing Staffordshire schools have experienced a tightening grip on their budgets and have lost 331 teachers and 69 teaching assistants over a two-year period.

Statistics show that although there is a squeeze on budgets, there will be an additional £6.5m made available to schools in Stoke.

Although, 13 schools will receive less funding and further cuts as the 2018/19 years budget takes effect.

The school worst affected in Stoke-on-Trent is Trentham Academy, with a difference of £121,431 between budgets in 2017/18 to 2018/19, despite a rise in the number of pupils.

However, it’s not all bad news as the Discovery Academy, in Burslem, will receive an additional £574,459 to their budget throughout the year.

Sarah Robinson, Chief Executive of Alpha Academies Trust, who oversees the Discovery Academy as one of their four colleges and academies, said: “This increase, however, reflects an increase of 61 pupils as the Discovery Academy is now oversubscribed.

“It does not cover the rising costs to the Trust of running schools when taking into account inflation, staff pay increases, the apprenticeship levy and increased pension and national insurance costs.

“There are further financial pressures in providing high levels of support to children and their families especially for schools with high percentages of pupil premium.”